The Swell Season

Review: They say you should never meet your heroes. And having met a few of mine, I can vouch for the veracity of that advice. But Glen Hansard is someone with whom I would dearly love to have a pint of Guinness and good yarn. Playing at the Opera House on Monday 5 April as the front man for the Swell Season, he just seemed to be a genuinely lovely fella, that’s all. This was a performance to gladden the heart.

Hansard and Marketa Irglova, you will recall, are the Oscar-winning stars of Once, 2007’s little-movie-that-could. Life imitated art when they fell in love for real on the set of the film. Their romance has now ended but somehow they have stayed together as the Swell Season and continue to make charming music. Their latest record, Strict Joy, sounds like a break-up album and feels like the aural sequel to the film. But while there is more than a little sexual tension in the lyrics, the pair have an easy, comfortable working relationship on stage – even sharing the same microphone on occasion so that their lips almost touch.

Mixing Irish soul and folk balladry, the music is emotionally charged – all the more so for Hansard’s mazy back stories that put each song in context. He sketches out the picture and then the song fills in the colour. There was the story of how, as a love-struck 16-year-old, he persuaded a cemetery sexton to dig him a grave so that he could show his then girlfriend the plot where they would one day be buried together. "I didn't see her for a few weeks afterwards." There was another story of the "unapologetically male" passenger sat next to him on his flight to Sydney who cried behind his sunglasses for the duration of the flight.

Not enough musicians are able to introduce their music properly in a live performance. They either say nothing or offer a few tired, cut-and-paste-name-of-town platitudes. But Hansard, a born raconteur, maintains an engaging, conversational level of banter between songs. A proud Dubliner, Hansard speaks warmly of the Irish oral and aural tradition: the importance of being able to tell a good story, or to sit down and chime into a traditional song with whatever you have at your disposal – be it a harmony, a harmonica or just an appreciative thigh slap. And he encouraged the Opera House to sing along as a backing choir.

Some of his bonhomie has rubbed off on Irglova as she prefaced a simple, sweet solo with an explanation of the Czech tradition in which men playfully hit women with sticks to encourage them to produce eggs at Easter. And she also touchingly introduced guest performer LJ Hill, a part-Aboriginal, part-Cherokee Indian, part-Irish singer-songwriter they had met and effectively kidnapped while playing at Bluesfest over the Easter weekend. Hill just about lived up to his billing.

There were also opportunities for the talented band – made up of members of Hansard’s other group the Frames – to shine. Of particular note, Colm Mac Con Iomaire took centre stage to showcase his hauntingly beautiful Irish folk violin, making especially effective use of a loop pedal to add layers of Celtic history.

Sydney loves a standing ovation but on this occasion it was absolutely merited. Every person in the room was lifted. If I had a sixth star at my disposal, I'd gladly give it. Next time the Swell Season are in town, do whatever you can to get tickets. Dan Rookwood